“PASSING MAORI MEMORIES”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 68, 16 February 1935, Page 2

“PASSING MAORI MEMORIES”

(Recorded by J.H.S. for “The Alanawatu Evening Standard.”) The Maori’s Saviour. As a civilising influence upon the Maori race, the sorry failure of the New Zealand Company, and the splendid results of Sir George Grey’s administration, encourage us to look once more into official records of old. Concerning tho company’s notorious claim and Earl Grey’s concession of £268,000 from New Zealand taxpayers, Mr Commissioner Cowell was candidly outspoken. “The N.Z. Company succeeded by gross frauds, concealments and misrepresentations, practised upon Earl Grey and the Chancellor of tho Exchequer,” ho said. Following the surrender of the company’s charter was the New Zealand Constitution Act, 1852, framed by Governor Grey in the light of five years’ experience and study; but seriously mutilated by Earl Grey, whose ill advised alterations were mostly blemishes. Bitter experience ha cl taught the Maoris to distrust those words they could not understand. They correctly foretold danger and confusion from tho stated intention to remove their trusty and trusted friend Ivawana Kerei, who talked with them and consulted their chiefs, hi their eyes, as in those of all good colonists, his bold suspension for live years of Earl Grey’s very faulty Constitution of 1846 was a specimen of his prompt, silent, decisive and courageous action. In his day Alfred Saunders said of Sir George: “Quick to detect danger, full of resources to avert it, he seemed to delight in confronting it. Still he could conceal or be silent, and be less just to his centals or rivals than to his inferiors or helpers. He was fond of power; still more of fame, but wisely sought them by worthy means, rather than expediency. Ho was slow to make enemies—when lie did, they were there for life. He could charm an audience and put every opponent to ridicule without uttering a. sentence that could bear criticism. He was charmingly unselfish, and worshipped women and cliildren»bv instinct.” Many Maori leaders would have deemed it a privilege, to die for their Tvai Whakaora (Saviour of Aten). Others were ready to cry “Itipeka” (crucify). Te Otinga (The Ending).

To A'fred Saunders, we must ever he indebted for his comprehensive grasp of the virtues and faults of the men who made history in New Zealand, of whom Sir George Grey was the foremost. Mr Saunders said: “Whatever differences of opinion exist, there can be none as to the result of Grey’s first eight years’ rule in New Zealand. He found the Government at war with tho Maoris; he left it in the enjoyment of profound peace. He found European power despised and ridiculed by tho Maoris: he left it respected, honoured, and beloved. He found that defeats at Wairau, Bay of Islands, and Ohaewai had clouded cur history; he followed them by victory of Ruapekapeka (the bat’s nest), the submission of Heke, the alliance of Waka None and Te Whcro Whero, and the humiliation of Rauparaha. He found European workers pleading for employment at 2s a day ; he left them refusing 6s. For less than Hobson paid for a town site that was never used, and to which the seller had no title, he made more than half New Zealand the undisputed property of the Crown. He found 12,000 Europeans who were fast leaving New Zealand; lie left 31,000 with a good stream of immigration coming in.” Earl Grey, who for several years had opposed and belittled Sir George in the vain attempt to humiliate him, now came to light with the most generous eulogy. He gave tho Governor sole credit for the good work in which, as Secretary of the Colonies, he might have claimed a share. He writes: “It is to Sir George Grey that New Zealand is mainly indebted for the happy change in its condition and prospects. We recognised the justness of his views, and left it to his judgment as to what measures were to be taken. This was the principle upon which we acted.” But the most unreserved expressions of gratitude came from Ins Maori people, whose addresses in prose and poems were extremely interesting, grateful, and pathetic. Whakamatau Patai—A Mock Trial. It happened in 1856, when the New Colonial Government found “a credit balance of ninepence in the Treasury,” with liabilities estimated at £500,000. Nelson wn.s in the throes of electing a Superintendent. Dr. Monro was a deservedly popular candidate. Mr Travers stood as a Liberal, but was charged with having been previously elected as a Provincialist and then voting as a. Centralist. The electors deckled to decline his services without thanks. After hearing both candidates they resolved “that neither the doctor nor the lawyer would suit them.” The fight was left to the doctor and a mechanic, John l'’. Robinson, in which pakeha tactics were discussed and unsparingly ridiculed by the Maoris, who outnumbered us by five to one, but had no electoral rights. On a Saturday in the last issue of the Examiner before the election, George Hooper charged Robinson with gross dishonesty. The victim of the libel addressed the entire populace on the same evening and to their satisfaction and merriment explained his conduct, and undertook to take Supreme Court action against Hooper. The election was conducted like a mock trial without the slightest illwill, and the doctor was defeated by 16 votes. Mr Robinson’s case in Court was ably conducted by Air Travers. It was proved that Hooper did not understand a single entry in his own books upon which he had based the charges. He had sent Robinson to the Bay of Islands with casks of beer which turned sour in the warm climate and were unsaleable. So later 911 he sent some better beer, accompanied bv a letter, produced, telling Robinson to mix good beer with sour beer for the “sodgers” who would be willing to drink it. This Robinson refused to do, so Hooper charged him with dishonesty. The verdict of the jury was “That the Grand Jury of tlm people, having proved Robinson’s innocence of the charges by electing him, we therefore award damages to Hooper on the lowest scale 1 Only those who knew the Alaori’s capacity for satire will realise the fun they got from it.